1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the user interface mobile communication devices. Specifically this invention relates to optimising the screen space available to provide sufficient viewing of information that would otherwise be obscured or truncated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most handheld mobile communication devices (herein referred to as mobile devices), the display screen (also herein referred to as screen) is very small in order to reduce the overall size of the mobile device. Message lists contain lengthy information that takes up display screen real estate. Typically, the message list will contain information regarding the time received, the sender's name or address, and the subject of the message. This information is usually contained on a single line. If the sender's name or the subject text is especially long, the text will be cut off in order to fit the field length. Often this modification will not allow the user enough information to know who the sender is or what the subject is. It is desirable to view the message information within the message list without opening the message when searching quickly for a message.
The header information within a message may also be limited in order to save screen real estate. Typically a message will show the sender's name in the sender field as the “friendly address”. This is the user name of the sender or the name that is listed in the address book of the mobile communication device. The qualified address or e-mail address of the sender may not be listed in the header information to save screen space. It is desirable to view the qualified address as well as the friendly address of the sender.